It was the year 1990 something and then there was this thing called a dial-up modem for the Internet it would change how the world views information
Not War Games
Back in the year 1983, there was a movie called wargames, it was about a teenager who used a modem to connect to a computer, called Joshua. Then in 1985, it was a movie called weird science where two teenagers hooked up to a computer over the phone lines and via a modem.
Modem
What is a modem, well it is a piece of hardware that converts data into a format that can be transmitted from the computer to computer usually over phone lines. The goal was to modulate a carrier wave(s) and encodes that digital information for transmission over the phone lines and then demodulates on the side and to be transmitted easily. They are usually classified by the maximum amount of data they can send over the phones at once or in a given time.
I can give you a rundown of how they were used since the 1920s but you can look at that up. The speeds started out low but over time they began to get quicker.
Household
In 1994 found that 60% of the computers had a modem, however, only 7% went online. I remember those days, it was weird. IN order to use the modem you would have to use take your phone offline. So you wouldn’t be able to receive a call.
Still used
Yes, modems are still used in certain parts of the world and yes, in rural areas here in the USA. Where broadband isn’t quite available or economical. Yes, I have used one and it is slower than slow.
If you would like to see what it sounded like, I got it here, well from Youtube anyway.
